Career and Leadership Development - ABN AMRO

Career and Leadership Development Programme

105,000 people in around 60 countries, when it comes to big banks ABN AMRO is up there with the best. A prominent international bank with a history going back to 1824, ABN AMRO ranks eighth in Europe and 13th in the world.

The bank maintains a philosophy of creating maximum economic value for their clients and shareholders, but not at the expense of human values and principles. It was for this reason that the head of learning and development in HR invited Impact Factory to be part of their Career and Leadership Development Programme.

We are delighted to be rolling out monthly, half day training sessions in Communication Skills for groups of up to 20 delegates from their Global Markets and Client Relationship business units. This training is offered as a response to ABN AMROs Employment Engagement Survey. Their people wanted more Soft Skills training, the bank wanted the best communication skills training available, and we are the company to do just that in a way no one else can.

ABN AMROs L&D team decided on the theme of 'carpe diem'-'seize the day' for the programme to encourage staff to take up the responsibility for their training needs by attending the sessions that appeal to them. 'Seize the day' is the perfect banner under which to promote Impact Factory's dynamic, experiential, thought provoking and practical training methods. Our considerable experience, gained over many years of providing training in the financial world underpinned and informed all the work we provided for the delegates.

The sessions began with an ice breaker to loosen up any early tensions and create an atmosphere of rapport and participation. We then looked at the dynamics of communication using an experiential process. Using interactive exercises we explored the impact of Body Language, voice and the subliminal elements such as environment, history of experience and managing personal boundaries.

We finished the first half of the session with a simple model to follow through a communication cycle, showing how easily we can be misunderstood but how with care, we can put our attention where it is needed so that everyone is clear i.e.; what I say is what you heard and we both understand what I meant.

We open the second half looking at how to set clear boundaries and how to communicate those effectively to others. At this point we offer our most powerful communication tool 'Status'. This technique deals with 'situational status' rather than hierarchical status. This series of exercises instantly helps people raise their confidence and approach in uncomfortable situations.

We finished off with a series of exercises looking at simple behavioural techniques affecting communications, and a practical structure for getting a message across clearly and in a short punchy style. The big finish involved a few participants volunteering to deliver a 30 second pitch of their choice to the group using the ARMED model.

ABN AMRO positions itself as an ethical, innovative, responsible and socially connected bank. Diversity and inclusion are a vital part of their strategy and just like Impact Factory their aim is to respect all individuals and draw on their strengths and creativity.

It was a real pleasure to meet and work with the individuals from the different cultures and nationalities represented at ABN AMRO. Communication was the focus of our time together and as always, we demonstrated that the language of great communication is worth the effort, as it brings cultures together.